Strictly Work
by ZevieObsessed2012
Summary: The job was never easy, and it was never going to be. They knew that the minute they decided it was what they wanted to do. What they never anticipated was the stress and personal problems that could come with it... will it ever become too much? Rated T for safety (may vary by chapter). New Multichapter! Happy Zevie Month!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I'm on some kind of Law & Order: SVU kick lately… so I've decided to base a new Zevie fic around that… somewhat. Happy Zevie Month!**

**Let me know what you think! **

**Zander and Stevie work in the Special Victims Unit along with a few others, and so it's going to sort of be like Law and Order, but don't worry. You don't have to watch the show to understand this. I'm not going to be basing much off the show anyway (or at least I hope not!)**

**I'm rating it as T, but there will be trigger warnings at the beginning of chapters if needed. I like to get graphic with dark things, so PLEASE, if you can't stomach those kinds of things, or you've had experiences or something, and you can't handle things like this, please don't continue reading. **

**I really want to make this an enthralling story, but I don't want people to be disturbed by it. This is your warning; however, the first chapter isn't going to be very graphic at all. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own How to Rock or Law & Order: SVU**

**Warnings: Non-suitable content for anyone under 13  
**

_**April 23rd, 2008 | 6:57 AM**_

_**Los Angeles Police Department**_

"Coffee?"

"Oh, you know me so well," he teases, kissing her cheek and swiping her coffee mug right out of her hands, careful not to spill any on her blouse or his crisp white button-down. He gulps down at least half before giving a dramatic "_Ah_" and handing her the cup back.

She gives him her best un-amused look and then says, "You better hope you didn't catch my cold." She takes a small sip from what's left of her drink and then places the cup down on the wood surface of her desk.

He grins and says, "You don't have a cold, you're just trying to scare me."

"Too bad I don't have oral herpes," she retorts, rolling her eyes. He knows she's only joking, but she's always been convincing. He's just known her too long to take her seriously.

"That's a 'too bad' thing?" he teases, raising an eyebrow. She ignores the question and thumbs through a file that's been sitting on her desk probably all night—she's only just got into work, and it must not have been too important, no one called her in after she left last night.

"Hey, Z, you got anything this morning?" Stevie asks him. Zander Robbins and Stevie Baskara have been partners for almost eight years. Zander's been working for the LAPD longer than Stevie has though, but he's never quite gotten along with his other partners the way he has with Stevie.

They're inseparable, and Zander even jokes about Stevie calling her his work-wife, though he has no wife outside of work. Just a girlfriend of almost four years. Their coworkers tease Zander and Stevie constantly about how close they are, but they have an unspoken rule.

_No dating. No feelings_. Strictly work.

"Define anything," Zander replies, sitting down at his desk only a few feet from hers. Stevie walks around her own desk, reading through the file. She takes a seat on the edge of his desk that's not cluttered with papers and manila folders and Zander watches her silently for a few minutes.

"What's that?" he asks.

"It was left on my desk, here look at it," Stevie says, shoving the folder into his hands. He skims over it and Stevie walks away for a minute to grab herself some more coffee and a mug for Zander too—so he can stop stealing hers.

When she comes back Zander says, "I don't know what you find so interesting about this." He shrugs, closes the file and tosses it on the ever-growing pile. Stevie places the mug down on his desk and he continues, "It's not even a sexual assault case. Not rape. It's out of our hands."

"I found it interesting because his file states he's been in jail before. It doesn't say what for though," Stevie responds, picking the file back up.

"You're not considering digging around, are you?" Zander asks, watching his partner for any signs. When she lies, he knows. He's known her for a while, but what he also knows is when she doesn't look him in the eyes. She keeps her attention on the file and Zander sighs, "Don't do it. It's not worth it, Steves. The case shouldn't have even ended up on your desk, it was probably a mistake."

"I don't think so," She says, finally looking at him. He then purses his lips and leans back in his chair, crossing his arms behind his head. He doesn't think the case is all that important—it's not even in the right department for God's sakes!

"Steves, let the case go, alright? It's not in our department. Let the others take care of it."

"Fine, fine," Stevie gives in, tossing the folder aside.

She yawns and it's a big enough yawn to catch Zander's attention because when she's able to speak again he asks her, "Did you sleep at all last night?"

"Wha—of course I slept last night. People need sleep, Zander," she answers, waving at him dismissively. He watches her for another minute before finally brushing it off and turning back to the paperwork on his desk.

He loves the mysteries in his job, and sometimes even getting to play good cop, bad cop, but he absolutely hates the paperwork. He likes the days where Stevie insists she will do it for him—she's always been more patient with that kind of stuff…

Despite the fact that she's absolutely impatient when it came to most people.

Today, however, is not one of those days. In fact, she looks a little bit too tired than normal, but maybe he's just misreading—something he normally _doesn't_ do when it comes to her. He starts filling out the load on his desk before his boss comes in with news of a case.

"Baskara, Robbins. Got a call not too long ago. Santa Monica Pier. An anonymous source called in the police after they found a body under the pier. They've got a medical team down their already, but they're calling us in. Where's Baskara?"

Zander looks over at Stevie's desk and then shrugs at his boss.

"She was here a little while ago…" he answers, closing folders and quickly stacking them together before pulling on his jacket with his badge in the pocket, "I'll go look for her real quick and then head down to the pier."

Eventually, he does find her. She's in the employee kitchen/lounge sucking down her fifth cup of coffee—or at least that's what she's told him. He tosses her jacket at her and then leads her out of the building, down to the lot where their car is.

_**April 23rd, 2008 | 9:24 AM**_

_**Santa Monica State Beach & Pier**_

They arrive at the Pier, and naturally, the first thing they see is a crowd of people being kept behind yellow caution tape. On-lookers who quite honestly have no business looking on, but do so anyway.

"Everybody just has to know what's going on, don't they?" Zander huffs under his breath, just low enough that Stevie can still hear him.

She laughs at the comment and nods her head, "Of course they do. God forbid anyone should miss something—about half of them go home wishing they hadn't bothered to see anything. That's just when the body's spotted."

They walk through the crowd until someone from their unit recognizes them and lets them through. Zander goes first, careful to avoid stepping in the water as the tide comes in and goes out. He walks over to the medical team and that's when the news comes out—this case is already going to be a difficult one.

"According to her current condition," a medical examiner begins, taking short but thorough notes on her clipboard, "She was alive when she got dumped here. Inhaling all that salt water must've finished our perp's job. She's cold, which means she's been here for a while. I won't know exactly how long until we get her back to the lab and run a few tests."

"Our perp was smart though," she says suddenly, "Dumped her body here, far enough in so it would take a while for the tide to pull her out and have anyone recognize her here. Just enough time for the water to take off any prints they may have left on her."

"Great," Zander states cynically, his tone dull, "So, we've got nothing so far?"

"I wouldn't say that," Stevie says suddenly, leaning down for a closer look at the body. She slips on a pair of gloves and carefully moves the girl's wet shirt sleeve up her arm. Just an inch or two above her wrist is a deep bite mark, still bright red but slowly browning.

"That looks fresh," the examiner says, kneeling down beside Stevie. Zander doesn't move, he doesn't need a closer look.

"If our perp's in the system, all we have to do is trace their dental records. It's a deep and clear bite, this could be helpful."

"So, what?" Zander asks suddenly, "Is that all we've got?"

"Like I said, Detective Robbins, our perp was smart. She's been in this water long enough to wash away and fluids the perp might've left on her. That includes fingerprints, semen, blood. Perp's male. Judging by the blood between her legs, she was a virgin."

"So, he rapes her, but he doesn't kill her. He lets the water take care of that," Zander elaborates, moving his eyes away from the victim's body to out from under the Pier, where he can just see the horizon. A breeze brushes past him, pulling him out of this thoughts.

Before he can elaborate any further, Stevie cuts in, "He lets the salt water kill her, take off anything that might lead back to him… stuffs her under the pier as far in as possible so it takes long enough for any evidence to clear off… sounds like we've got a professional on our hand," she sighs heavily.

The examiner moves away from Zander and Stevie to continue checking out the victim for any more clues as to who may have killed her.

"Do we know anything else about Jane Doe here?" Zander asks Stevie, crossing his arms.

"No ID," Stevie deadpans.

"You sure you don't need to take the rest of the day off and sleep?" Zander asks, concerned. Stevie shakes her head.

"Just give it up, okay? I'm fine, Z. Besides, we've got a case with very few evidence… might as well start working on it now." She makes to move past him and continue getting as much out of the examiner as she can, but Zander gently grabs her arm.

He looks at her seriously and says, "Don't push yourself, okay?"

"Never have, never will," she says with a small smile, removing her arm from his grasp and making her way back to the medical examiner.

_**April 24th, 2008 | 1:47 AM**_

_**Los Angeles Police Department**_

"Anything come back from the lab yet?" Zander asks a few hours later. They've returned back to the police department, and Stevie's looking through the small pile of papers the examiners handed her after a few tests they had taken.

They aren't nearly done with Jane Doe yet though, and both detectives are becoming a little frustrated with how slow the medical department is currently being. Zander sighs and sits back in his chair as he waits for his partner to finish reading.

She shakes her head suddenly, "Nothing new, not really. Just that she's nineteen years old. Still no name yet, and she was under that pier for almost a week… Doesn't it make you wonder about something though?"

"Wonder about…?"

"Well," Stevie says quickly, "No one's filed a missing person's report. Don't you find that weird? She's been under that Pier long enough to make _someone_ worry…"

"Well, maybe a bit, but maybe someone isn't missing her. She could've run away from home ages ago. Cops gave up looking for her… she turns up suddenly without a name, or any form of ID and suddenly she could be any missing person."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Stevie says, rubbing her eyes, exhausted. At the moment, she thinks there's nothing more inviting than her bed at home. But she's also not ready to go home yet.

Zander says, "You should just head out now. It's almost two in the morning, Steves. You looked like hell when you walked in, might as well try to get some sleep."

"I'll just stay in the precinct or something tonight. There's no point in driving home, only to come back in a few hours anyway," she sighs.

"You can have my bunk for the night," Zander says, not minding it. He hasn't stayed in the precinct in almost a year. He's never really needed to, not unless he was working till late and didn't want to drive home. He hands her his pass card and she takes it gratefully, wanting nothing more than to sleep.

But there's a slight hesitation in the way she grasps the pass. She masks it quickly though and thanks him before running off to go get some sleep. Zander hangs back and leans back in his chair, putting his arms behind his head for some support.

He shuts his eyes and pays attention with his ears. The office is extremely quiet except for the late night work going on down the hallway. He wonders if the medical team has given up for the night or if they're still trying to put a name with their Jane Doe.

_Bad guys never seem to sleep_, Zander thinks tiredly, drifting off.

**A/N: Dear God, that sucked, didn't it…? So sorry if you've read up to this point…**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Some *****_**IMPORTANT**_***** things to get out of the way: **

**1) Happy New Year! **

**2) I have a Facebook page! I'll post updates there, so if you could just go on Facebook, look up Zevie Obsessed2012 (yes, unfortunately you have to space Zevie and Obsessed), and just like the page? Thanks!**

**3)**_ I plan on doing a Sam & Cat / How to Rock crossover, and I'm in need of a cowriter! If you're interested, and willing to give an email address, PM me! (Might already have one, but PM if you're interested anyway, just in case!)  
_

**Warnings: Nothing too graphic, but this chapter is somewhat descriptive. No sexual content.**

_**April 25th, 2008 **__** 5:24 AM**_

_**Apartment of Zander Robbins**_

Zander slips quietly out of the young woman's arms, careful not to wake her, and then peels the sheets off his lower half. He doesn't have to be at work until at least 7:00, but he's awake now, and there's no point in falling back asleep.

He glances over at his fiancée in what little street light floods the dark bedroom before shutting the door behind himself and quietly padding down the hallway to the bathroom.

Vaguely, he wonders if Stevie is awake now too. Getting ready for work, or just waking up. He catches himself briefly thinking of her in a morning shower, or waking up by herself. As far as he knows, she's not seeing anyone, and he's not sure if he should feel bad—she's beautiful and strong—or relieved.

_You're engaged to another woman for Christ's sake, Robbins, _he mentally scolds himself, and glancing down at his body, he decides it's one of those mornings where a cold shower might be in order...

Twenty minutes later, he steps out of his shower, wraps a towel around his waist and silently walks to the kitchen, feeling dirtier than before he had gotten in it. _She's your partner, and you just can't..._

As he flips on the lights in the kitchen, briefly blinding himself at first, he catches the glare in the corner of his eye from his detective badge sitting on the table top across the room. _Your partner in law enforcement is possibly the worst person you can fall for_, he mentally recalls a suspect telling him once, _because you could slip up, or they could get killed, and then what? Who's fault is it? Yours, of course_. And that was the last thing the suspect had said to Zander before the detective had stormed out of the room, avoiding everyone in his path. Stevie had been watching that play out through the one-way glass. It meant she could've known then that he thought of her as more than a partner... but she never said anything about that day. And Zander begins to wonder as he makes his coffee, _does she even know? Or worse, does she just not care the same way?_

And then he smacks himself back to reality. It doesn't matter what she thinks. Pursuing a relationship while they're partners on duty or off would be wrong, and dangerous. _But does anyone else know about... my feelings?_ If a suspect was so quick to notice, only after one encounter... what about everyone else he works with?

With that terrifying thought in his mind, Zander decides that adding a little bit more kick to his coffee can't possibly hurt. He'll need it… He leaves the coffee maker to do its job while he stealthily makes his way back to the bedroom and throws on some clothes for the day, and before he goes back to grab his coffee, he glances at his sleeping fiancée as she clings to the bed sheets that are now cool where Zander had been.

_She's the most important girl to you, anyway,_ his mind reminds him. _She's the one you should be giving all your love and attention to. Not your partner._

With his coffee ready, he slaps his badge onto his crisp, navy blue button-down and checks his tie in the nearest reflection before shutting the door behind himself and locking it for good measure. He glances down at his watch—_6:49 AM_—and he's already running late.

Zander curses under his breath and walks out of the apartment to his car in the lot quickly before he can waste any more time.

_**April 25th, 2008 **__** 8:57 AM**_

_**Apartment of Stevie Baskara**_

Her arm reaches towards the alarm clock and slams down on the snooze button, but that's not what catches her attention. What grabs her attention is the fact that the alarm clock _isn't_ going off... the bedroom is just completely silent.

She groans quietly and rolls over onto her back, and what's really alarming to her is the enormous amount of light pouring through her curtains...

Instinctively, she glances over at her clock and sucks in a sharp breath when she sees she's horribly late to work—it's the third time this week! Stevie jumps out of her bed, nearly tripping over yesterday's clothes that litter the floor. She internally groans when she realizes it'll be much too long to properly shower and do what needs to be done this morning.

She claws through her hamper quickly, angry at herself for forgetting to do laundry _again_, and then she throws on the only shirt that doesn't reek of a-week-or-two-in-the-hamper. Next, she reaches for yesterday's jeans, hoping nobody will take notice today. After all, a general rule in the house when growing up with four brothers is if there aren't any stains, then your jeans are good for another day.

Something probably few find repulsive, but Stevie isn't the girl to wear an outfit once and then let it rot away in the closet. _There's no sense behind that_, she absently thinks as she tugs the jeans up her legs until they're snugly on her waist.

She quickly tucks the blouse in neatly and throws her hair into a messy tail before throwing on her glasses—_no time for contacts today_—and running out to her small den, throwing her badge into her pocket and grabbing her car keys off the kitchen counter.

She doesn't bother to check her reflection, because if she looks like shit, Zander will be the first to notice, and she honestly doesn't mind how he sees her. They've been partners for years, and it's gotten to that point in their friendship/partnership where being comfortable around one another isn't an issue whatsoever.

By the time she gets to her car in the lot, it's 9:05AM—two hours late—and she's silently praying the traffic has mostly cleared up... she's gonna hear from her boss today for sure...

_**April 25th, 2008 **__** 9:49 AM**_

_**Los Angeles Police Department**_

"I thought you called in sick or something," is the first thing Stevie hears upon entering the office. It's her other partner, Detective Kevin Reed. He smiles at her, and she manages a smile back before slipping into her desk chair and resting her head in her arms.

As for Kevin, he was always the kind of kid that disliked cops. Not because he was always in trouble (because he hardly ever was) but because they intimidated him to no end. Stevie had introduced him to her Forensics class in their junior year, and he had been hooked on the methods to solving mysteries ever since. He was lanky and dorky in high school, but when the time came that he passed all the written tests to his training, but failed to pass any of the physical ones, he took to building himself. He's no longer the dorky, lanky, skittish high school boy, but a well-built, tough yet kind guy. Stevie has always been amazed by his "other side" which he often refers to as his element of surprise. He keeps his secrets, but when it comes down to it, you would swear he's no longer Kevin Reed, but someone else... a real cop.

Finally moving past the thoughts of admiration, something clinks down on her desk and Stevie slowly glances up from her arms to observe. A cup of dark coffee sits in front of her, hot and inviting, and attached to it is a muscular arm, and attached to that is Zander. He smiles gently down at Stevie.

"You look—"

"—like shit, I know," she says bitterly, laying her head down in her arms again. Zander chuckles in response and sits down on the edge of her desk.

"I was going to say tired."

"Sure you were, but yes, I'm that too," she mumbles.

"Brought you some coffee, and I already covered for you with the boss. You owe me, sweetheart," he grins at her, brushing her hair out of her face so he can see her bitter expression—yet adorable face.

"We'll if today runs smoothly, I'll bring you along for takeout and pay for us both. Deal?" Stevie asks, smiling a bit at Zander, grateful for the cover and the coffee.

Zander nods, "Sounds good, Steves." He soothingly rubs her arm for a moment before moving away from her desk and going back to his own. He picks up a file and examines its contents carefully, and after several moments he says, "I think the ME's got some useful information for us."

"Er... you go without me," Stevie says, leaning back in her chair, eyes closed. She pulls her hair out of its messy tail and runs her fingers through it, gently massaging the back of her head, and she doesn't notice Zander's small gulp as he can't seem to take his eyes off her.

After far too long he says in reply, "Alright. Tell you what the ME tells me." He gets up from his desk and walks past hers to the long hallway, but before he goes Stevie calls his name, stopping him in his tracks.

"What's my cover story?" she asks urgently, "In case he asks?"

"Flu shot appointment," he shrugs, and Stevie stares after him as he leaves, slack-jawed. The boss actually bought that?

_**April 25th, 2008**__**10:19 AM**_

_**Los Angeles PD Medical Lab**_

"What have we got today?" Zander asks upon entering the lab, noticing immediately it's just the medical examiner by herself today. ME Grace King walks around the examination table over to Zander and hands him a manila folder. Silently, he takes it and flips through it as Grace goes over her examination.

"Unfortunately," she states, and Zander looks up from the folder with raised eyebrows—she's already getting to the bad news, "I wasn't able to track the dental records to anyone in the system."

"So, we're not dealing with a repeat offender here," Zander says cynically, slapping the folder down on the table. Grace stares at the folder for a moment before shaking her head in response to Zander's statement.

"Exactly," she replies just as cynically, but she continues on, "But I do know exactly how the victim was killed," Grace says expertly, slipping on gloves and gently moving the victim's head to the side, exposing the back of her neck to Zander, "Ligature marks."

"So, she was bound by neck?"

"Well, strangled, but yes. Bound by the neck, and the ankles as well. Her wrists show no signs of bondage. Rape kit came back positive. I didn't find any water in the lungs, so she was dead before she was stuffed under that pier. That was obvious though," she states, readjusting the victim and then placing the cover back over her body.

Zander gives her an odd look as he says, "Obvious? How, do you mean?"

"Well, if she had been alive she could've called out for someone. Someone would've found her immediately, and we would have our perpetrator by now," Grace shrugs, pulling her gloves off and tossing them into the garbage.

"Alright, you got me there," Zander says with a small smile, "Is there anything else you found out?"

"Yes actually," Grace perks up, moving around the table fluidly, used to the layout of the room and everything in it. Zander watches as she pulls yet another folder out of the stack on her small desk and then she quickly flips through it until she pulls out a paper and hands it to Zander.

"Driver's license?" he asks.

"Papers for it, take a look. It's our victim, I'm sure of it," Grace states without hesitation.

"'Amber Summers,'" he reads aloud, and then he asks, "Is this a recent renewal?"

Grace makes a face before saying, "I'm not really sure… for that, you'll probably have to get a warrant to collect her license records and anything else that might help. Judging by what examinations I did, I would say she's about twenty-four years old."

"Thank you, Grace," Zander says, turning around and leaving the examination lab. Stevie surely needed to hear all this while it was still fresh in his mind. Years on the job though improved him memory tenfold though, and it would still be fresh in his mind later on.

He walks back to the main office and finds Stevie on the phone, probably looking for any leads to the case. When she hangs up, she looks at Zander almost like she's onto something, and then says, "How long ago was the victim stashed under that pier?"

"A little over a week," he says, confused as to where she's going.

"Just got a call from the victim's supposed boyfriend," she says almost amused, "Just reported her missing."

"Wow, this should be interesting," Zander says, finally understanding her. She nods her head at him and then asks about his meeting with the ME, and Zander's all too excited to tell her exactly what they know now about the victim, Amber.

Stevie listens intently, but she's more focused on _why_ the boyfriend's coming forward now with a missing person's report… it's peculiar to her, and she's only too excited to get something out of the boyfriend.

**A/N: Alright. I'm so sorry my updates are taking forever! School is seriously getting harder and I have midterms starting the 14th or 15th of this month, so I'll be gone studying for those—ew. Anyway, I will try to get the next chapter of Seven Long Years up as soon as possible!**


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